The 11th hole at Royal Troon is, unquestionably, the most difficult on the course. It was touted as such before the first round of The Open started, and it has lived up to its reputation in the first round. It's long, into the prevailing wind, loaded with gorse and junk that are impossible to hit out of (we saw Justin Thomas take an unplayable lie earlier on Thursday).
The tee shot is also totally blind. You put your tee in the ground in front of a bunch of gorse bushes and there's no fairway to be seen. So you pick a line somewhere on the horizon, make a cut, and hope it lands safely in the fairway.
Matt Jones, however, did not need to see the fairway to know this push was long, long gone. Jones' was leading at the time but this one sailed well off the whole damn course and onto the railway that runs down the right side of the 11th.
Jones knew it immediately, too, launching the club as soon as the ball started to climb. It was out of his hands before the ProTracer technology had even kicked in, which is impressive.
ProTracer hadn't even started before he ejected his driver pic.twitter.com/8jrTIxQ7iX
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) July 14, 2016
Even with that OB tee shot, Jones still managed to make a double bogey, which is not bad given that he started the toughest hole on the course with a ball that left the property.